Southern California, a region known for its Hollywood stars and sunny beaches, has been the victim of mass wildfires for nearly an entire month. On January 7, the Palisades and Eaton Fires began raging through many neighborhoods in Los Angeles County and have burned 23,448 acres and 14,021 acres, respectively. Now at 75% and 95% containment, these two fires have destroyed the homes of celebrities from Mandy Moore to Anthony Hopkins, as well as everyday Americans like 90-year-old Ruth Judkins, who lost her house after 48 years of memories.

On January 21, the Clay Fire started up in Riverside county, and January 22 saw the Hughes Fire emerge in Los Angeles. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported that January 23 saw five new fires in the area: the Border 2 and Gilman Fires in San Diego county, the Laguna Fire in Ventura county, the Sepulveda Fire in Los Angeles, and the Gibbel Fire in Riverside. Out of these, the Clay Fire is the most contained at 85%, but the Gibbel, Gilman, and Border 2 stand at 0% containment as of January 24.

In total, over 50,683 acres have burned, 16,188 structures have been destroyed, and 37,794 emergency responses have been issued. The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has also reported 28 fatalities, though this number is preliminary and dependent on coroner confirmation.

Stockton University and South Jersey’s Pine Barrens are located thousands of miles away from the devastation, but the environment and makeup of California and New Jersey forests are similar. Therefore, the question arises of if the Pine Barrens can be at risk of fires of this magnitude in the future.

Matthew Olson is an assistant professor of Environmental Science at Stockton, and his expertise is in the hydrology, flora, and fauna of the Pinelands. He has also worked on prescribed burns with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service in the name of preventing wildfires. In comments made on January 14 to Stockton’s News and Media Relations, Olson said that the Pine Barrens have the potential to be at risk of wildfires as extreme as those on the west coast.

“[Pine Barrens] vegetation is also considered highly flammable, and decades of wildfire suppression and exclusion (leading to excessive fuels) makes our situation similar to California,” he said, although “[South Jersey] doesn’t get anything quite like Santa Ana winds and our topography is much flatter, which means our fires may burn with slower rates of fire spread.”

Furthermore, Olson disclosed the steps that New Jersey takes to prevent Pine Barrens wildfire. “Both New Jersey and California use prescribed burning to reduce fuel loading. Increasingly, we’re also treating forests with mechanical fuels reduction treatments (thinning forests) and creating fire breaks to help moderate fire behavior and reduce the probability that fires spread across the landscape at high intensity.” However, California is much more expansive than New Jersey with more remote areas, making the preparations slightly more difficult.

“All states and many parts of the world need to shift from costly reactive measures (suppression of massive fires when and wherever they occur) to more effective proactive approaches in anticipation of wildfires,” Olson concluded. He suggested that states should allow some wildfires to burn in remote locations when and where it can be beneficial, as long as weather allows for safety.

Likewise, Stockton professor of Sustainability, Patrick Hossay, is a California native with a background in fighting forest fires and Search and Rescue. Hossay said that “the increased frequency and severity of wildfires in the West are clearly linked to climate change and the resulting warmer and drier seasonal conditions; and it is well past time that we seriously address the causes of climate change and our resulting vulnerabilities, including aging and outdated energy infrastructure.” Adding onto this statement, Hossay confessed that “climate change will not fix itself […] Yes, facing this reality can be ‘inconvenient’; but ignoring it will be catastrophic.”

Hossay informed that for the past twenty years, “predictions of increased wildfires resulting from climate change” have become clearer. This is because “warmer air means more evaporation; and that means less moisture is maintained in soil and plants.” Hossay included how dryer plants burn more easily, and while “climate change may not cause the spark that starts the fire, […] it increasingly provides the tinder, the dry, vulnerable grass and twigs that make a small fire rapidly progress into a big fire.”

Southern California experiencing warmer air is supposed to correlate with significant falls of rain, but this part of the state has experienced 200 days of drought. Hossay called these conditions a “perfect storm,” as the “rising temperatures, stronger resulting winds, and longer dry spells, have pushed fires beyond the established ‘fire season.'”

Much like Olson, Hossay is not ignorant to believing that the Pine Barrens are immune to wildfires. “This shift from very wet periods to extended dry periods offers a perfect setup for severe fire risk. […] These conditions impact everyone on the planet, and that includes New Jersey.” He then stated that increasing fuel loads along with these warm and dry conditions make New Jersey more susceptible to fire: “It is a fundamental reality of a changing climate, and it won’t go away on its own”

Hossay’s connection to California also makes these tragedies personal. “I can tell you I am watching events in Los Angeles with intense trepidation. My family has faced evacuation twice due to past fires in Northern California. And I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before they face another fire threat.”

Hossay shouted out the L.A. firefighters and first responders, as “the pace at which they are operating can only be maintained for so long.” He empathized with the physical and emotional stress they are being put under, before concluding his comments with the following: “It is high time we faced the real cause of these catastrophes, rather than a continuous rearguard action we can’t win.”

To learn more about how the U.S. government is handling these fires, visit the link here. If anybody is willing and able, use the link here to learn how to help the California Fire Foundation with their Wildfire and Disaster Relief fund.

Sources:

“MEDIA ADVISORY: Wildfire and Climate Change Experts Available for Interviews” by Mark Melhorn, Associate Director of News and Media Relations

California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection